Carlos Costa, BdP's governor, said that the problem in the Portuguese economy isn't the number of hours spent working, but rather the low productivity of the country in comparison to other EU states.

Bank of Portugal chief, Carlos Costa, warned on Monday that Portugal could not continue with “potentially anaemic growth” and said the country needed to bolster competitiveness among its employees.

“What separates the Portuguese economy from economies with better performance in terms of per capita GDP are the differences in productivity, and not the number of hours worked,” Costa said at the opening of the 9th Conference of the Bank of Portugal on Portugal’s economic development in Europe.

“We cannot continue with potentially anaemic growth,” he added.

Costa pointed to the importance of strengthening employees’ competencies and a culture of merit and entrepreneurship among other factors.

He also reminded the public that in the latest Global Competitiveness Index, published by the World Economic Forum, Portugal was behind 15 economies in the European Union.

Portugal’s Socialist government projects 2.3% growth in gross domestic product next year and a public sector budget deficit equivalent to 0.2% of GDP, as well as reducing public indebtedness to 118.4% of GDP.